


The Client

by Lady_Ganesh



Series: Streamverse [4]
Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-17
Updated: 2010-07-17
Packaged: 2017-10-11 02:30:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kou-tachi have a new employer. Thanks to Eleanor K. for betaing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Client

  
Carlos was checking flight information when he got the call. "Hey," he said, picking up the phone. "What's up, Shen?"  
"I need you to check something out. It's only a couple hours' drive from where you are now."  
Carlos grinned. "You're never gonna let me go home, huh?"  
_"Carlos."_  
"I'm kidding. What's up?"  
"Got an email from a kid. Well. Sort of."  
Carlos leaned back in his chair and closed the Travelsite window. "Keep talking."  
"Says his body's in a coma, and Dad wants to pull the plug. He's not so sure about it."  
Okay, this was new. "And this kid emailed you from _where?"_  
"He's a Streamer. Says he uploaded the night before...whatever went down went down. Don't know if I believe him, but the whole thing smells. Weird setup, allegations of abuse that went nowhere because Dad's got connections, you get the idea. I'm emailing you the details now."  
"What kind of connections?"  
"The kind my family has back home."  
Carlos hissed air through his teeth. "Got it. I'll go down there and check it out."  
"Thanks," Shen said, and Carlos could see him rubbing his face with his hand, the way he always did when he was tired. "Sorry to send you out again so soon."  
"No problem. Give Catherine a kiss for me, huh?"  
Shen sighed at him.  
"Use a lot of tongue, she'll like that."  
Shen hung up the phone. Carlos rolled his eyes and called the rental car company.

The bare details were simple: Jonathan Andrews had attempted suicide two years ago. The EMTs cut him down, gave him oxygen, and since then he'd been at Mercy General with no visible signs of brain activity. A little more digging gave more details; the last check for anything significant had been twenty months before, and the team who'd done that check had been part of a university medical team funded in part by a very generous grant from the Andrews Family Foundation. Carlos started with the social worker who'd been called in when the abuse allegations popped up.  
She was delighted to have someone looking into the old case; still more delighted to go to dinner to discuss it in detail. A few hours and a few bottles of wine later, he had the whole story. Back at her apartment, she murmured her gratitude into his ear as her panties hit the floor.  
She made pancakes and bacon in the morning, while Carlos worked at his laptop. He sent Shen an email about the bad feeling and lack of evidence the social worker reported, and dropped her off at her office on the way to the hospital. Nice girl.  
He had to sweet-talk his way past the nurses at the front desk, but he was used to that. He was less used to the private security guard in the Andrews room. But hell, Shen never picked up a job if it was going to be easy. "Hey," he said.  
The guard pointed mirrored sunglasses at his face. "You're not allowed in here," he said.  
"Sorry," Carlos said. "But this is my client."  
"Client?"  
Carlos nodded and handed him a business card. "I've been engaged on his behalf." Really, he should be doing this electronically, but he wanted to see the kid. It took balls to ask a total stranger to go to bat for you to begin with; for you to email someone to save your comatose body, well, that took _serious_ balls.  
The kid looked like...well, he looked like someone who'd spent over twenty months in a hospital bed. Pale and skinny and...pretty shitty-looking, with dark hair and a sallow face. Carlos let the guard look over the business card. "It's a bit unusual," he said, somewhat sympathetically. "I'll have the court documents filed by tomorrow morning."  
The guard handed the card back. "Then you can leave, and I can pretend this conversation never happened. I don't get paid enough to put up with this shit."  
"You got it," Carlos said, and winked.  
He passed one of the nurses on his way out; he was lean and attractive, with dark brown eyes. His name tag read _Jack Rodriguez, RN._ "I'm calling you later," he said, grinning at Carlos. "I have a legal issue I'm _sure_ you can help me with."  
"Glad to hear it," Carlos grinned back.

He turned the lovely social worker down for a second date-- it was never smart to get too attached-- and booked a hotel room instead. He ate a sandwich he'd ordered from room service and worked on documents, emailing them back and forth to Shen and Catherine as he came up with ideas.  
_Nice work,_ Shen messaged. _Looks like this is going to be a long-term case._  
_Yeah,_ he emailed back.  
_Get the first phase wrapped up and come home._  
_Miss me?  
Of course._  
Carlos couldn't help smiling. _Catherine?  
I think she misses you more than I do._  
He missed Catherine. He missed Shen more, but Catherine had been occupying a greater and greater space in his mind lately. She was lovely, which had been the first thing he'd noticed, but as they continued working together he'd gotten a better idea of her strength and intellect, both of which were impressive. She was a prize, all right, and so in love with Shen it was impossible to miss.  
The two of them could be happy together, and Carlos hoped they would be. He tried to ignore the tiny pang he felt when he thought about it.  
_Give her a kiss,_ he typed. _Make her feel better.  
Don't you have to go to bed?  
Yeah, I do. Night._ His phone buzzed just as he sent the message.  
"Hey," he said, picking up the call.  
"Carlos?"  
"Yeah."  
"It's Jack. From the hospital?" The nurse. "That case I wanted to talk about. You got some time for me?"  
Carlos looked up at the clock; it was only ten. "Damn right I do," he said.

Jack dipped another French fry into his ranch dressing. "It's not a bad job," he said. "It gets depressing sometimes, for sure. But I've worked a lot worse."  
"Do people normally hang on as long as the Andrews kid?"  
"Normally they get pneumonia," Jack said. "We do our best to prevent it, but there's no substitute for getting up and walking around." He chewed thoughtfully. "Normally they're not that young to start off with, either."  
"Was he healthy?"  
Jack raised an eyebrow. "You seriously think I'm going to answer that question? I could lose my job."  
Carlos gave his best 'worth a try' apologetic shrug. "We'll find it in the court records."  
"I wasn't working there when he came in, anyway." He took another fry. "I can't believe you went out with me just to try to get information on the kid."  
"Oh, no," Carlos said. "I went out with you because you're hot. I just figured I'd ask while I was here."  
Jack snickered. "Okay, then. I was afraid I was losing my touch."  
"Well," Carlos said, "I don't know about your _touch."_  
Jack choked on his beer.

The next morning, he started filing motions. There weren't many precedents for filing a case based on something that happened in the Stream, but that just gave them more of an excuse to delay. If a judge accepted that Jonathan Andrews' online alter ego had the right to sue on his body's behalf...well, that was unlikely at best, but it was entirely likely that a judge would decide that the case wasn't in his or her individual jurisdictions, and to pass it on up the line. Which would suit them just fine. Shen loved complicated cases; he'd be happy to argue it in the Circuit courts on up, and delighted to be helping write new case law. Whoever this kid was, he'd picked the right lawyer.  
The third night he was in town, Jack turned to him in bed and said, "I will tell you one thing. About the Andrews kid."  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yeah," he said, reaching over and pushing Carlos' bangs out of his face. "I trust you. You haven't even brought it up again."  
"You're sweet," he said.  
"Besides," he added. "It won't get you anywhere. Not really." He leaned in and kissed Carlos. "I appreciate what you guys are doing. But I don't think there's anybody left in there."  
"I wonder that too," Carlos said. He shifted his weight and let Jack rest against his shoulder. "You just going on instinct?"  
"Yeah, mostly. I mean, it's worth doing the tests, I think. But...."  
"I wonder what'll happen if he _does_ come to," Carlos said. "What happens to that guy in the Stream? Do they just...integrate? Or what?"  
Jack sighed. "You're depressing me. I'm going to tell Tim you're depressing me." Tim was Jack's boyfriend. He was stationed overseas and had given Jack permission to fool around-- within reason-- while he was gone. "He'll come beat you up."  
"Now I'm scared," Carlos teased back, kissing him again. "How 'bout I come up with something more cheerful?"

Jack had to work a long shift the next day, so Carlos met up with Shen in the Stream to go over the case. Carlos hardly ever Streamed, but he had an avatar for times like this, when face-to-face meetings were impossible.  
It was good to see Shen, even virtually, though it was harder to gauge how he was really doing. In person, Carlos could check his eyes for fatigue; in the Stream, he was just Shen, handsome as always, looking more rested and calm than he ever did in real life.  
"I got the documents," he said. "You've done good work."  
"Damn right I do good work," Carlos said, but it still felt good when Shen said it.  
"You think they'll follow the court ruling?"  
Carlos considered the question. "The hospital certainly will. Local law enforcement's about fifty-fifty, ditto for the local courts if he tries pushing the case hard. Don't think he will, though, it won't look good. He wants to 'end the boy's suffering,' but if the timetable starts looking too aggressive it'll be bad for business. He wants the world to see a loving father who wants his family to be allowed to grieve. What about the kid?"  
"He's doing all right with it," Shen said. "Realizes it's going to take a while. He'd like to thank you in person."  
"Yeah," Carlos said. "Sure. If it won't freak him out."  
"No more than being a ghost," Shen said wryly. "His handle's Hermes. Want his coordinates?"  
"You're not coming with me?"  
Shen didn't meet his eyes. "I've got an appointment to keep."  
"Shen--" Shen only got vague like this when his bitch of a stepmother was involved. "Are you--"  
"I'm fine," Shen said, and shimmered out of vision as Carlos felt the coordinates come in.  
"Dammit," Carlos said to the distance.

Hermes looked a lot better than Coma Kid, but something about his avatar was a little off-- mechanical, almost. Maybe the time out of meatspace was affecting his coordination. "Thank you," the boy said, his voice measured and formal. "Your service is appreciated, especially considering our...unusual payment arrangements."  
Carlos waved that thought off. "Shen handles all that," he said. "I just consider you a client."  
"I see," Hermes said. "So how long have you been a lawyer?"  
"Been practicing for almost six years," Carlos said.  
"So only five," Hermes corrected.  
Carlos grinned at the challenge. "You think I'd be working for Shen if I wasn't any good?"  
The kid laughed, and he suddenly seemed far more normal and human. "I like you guys," he said. "If you can at least buy me time...."  
"We'll do whatever we can," Carlos said. _He's got his own game,_ he realized. He wondered if the kid himself thought he had any brainwaves left.  
"At any rate, let me know if there's anything I can do here in the Stream," Hermes said. "I've built up a certain level of capital; I might as well use it."  
"What, you don't have any hobbies?"  
Hermes smirked. "I build my own."  
"Fair enough."

"So what did you think?" Catherine asked. He could picture her at the desk, her perfectly manicured nails tapping against the desk.  
"Interesting kid," Carlos said. "I see why Shen wanted the job."  
"Interesting?"  
"Yeah. Seems to take being in a coma pretty well. How you guys doing back there?"  
She sighed.  
He shook his head. "It's her, isn't it?"  
"Yes," she confessed quietly. "I don't understand why he...."  
"It's his mom," he said. "She's been in a mental hospital for...well, long as I've known him, anyway. With his father out of the picture, the bitch has control over the family money-- that means control over his mother, too."  
She didn't say anything for a minute. "And it's more than just the money," she said finally. "Isn't it? His family--"  
"Yeah," Carlos said. "She's got her hands on _all_ the business."  
"I see," she said. "Is that the other reason Shen wanted the job?"  
The Andrews family had almost as many roots in American politics as the Shen clan did back in China. A possibly abusive parent whose first priority appeared to be power sure sounded familiar, though Carlos would never dare voice it to his employer. "Probably," Carlos said.  
He could hear Catherine take a deep breath. "Then we'll just have to win it, won't we?" she said cheerfully.  
"That we will." Carlos smiled. "I ever tell you you're the second-best choice Shen ever made?"  
She laughed. "What was the first?"  
"Hiring me, of course."  
"Don't let it go to your head," she teased, and hung up.  
Carlos ignored the twinge in his chest and went to book his flight back home.


End file.
